Pay farmers to save threatened species: expert

"They should be paying for it": Kevin Humphries says farmers should be reimbursed. Photo: Tamara Dean

Farmers banned from clearing their land should be reimbursed and society must pay to save native plants and animals on private property, says the top environmental economist heading a shake-up of NSW's biodiversity laws.

In an interview with Fairfax Media, Neil Byron, who is leading the independent review,has given the first indication of potential changes to contentious rules governing land clearing and threatened species protection.

Senior Nationals MPs have been heavily criticised for linking land clearing laws to the death of NSW environment compliance officer Glen Turner, who was killed while carrying out his work near Moree in July.

Killed: Environmental compliance officer Glen Turner. Photo: Supplied

Dr Byronbacked comments by Nationals MP Kevin Humphries that if the community wants farmers to set aside productive land "they should be paying for it".

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"If we as a public want these things saved, we ... have to pay at least part of the costs," Dr Byron said, adding farmers should be encouraged to maintain land, not just set it aside.

"What frequently happens is having identified something of high importance, we then ignore it and let it degrade."

He said such reimbursement need not be "extraordinarily expensive to taxpayers" and might involve expanding biodiversity offset schemes, in which impacts from development on threatened species are offset by restoring equivalent biodiversity elsewhere.

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Pay farmers to save threatened species: expert